I. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to improvements in jet engines and other engines having a jet-like exhaust from a plurality of combustion chambers to rotate a shaft. The invention also relates to combustion chambers of an improved construction and momentum maintenance devices.
II. Description of the Prior Art
The conservation of fuel including gasoline, kerosene, and jet fuel has become of great importance. This is true in the automotive industry as well as other industries where fuels are used by internal combustion engines, turbines, jet engines, and the like.
Internal combustion engines are known for their inefficiency, especially gasoline engines. There has become a great need for, and a great deal of research has been directed toward, engines capable of using a variety of fuels including, most recently, alcohol or alcohol mixed with gasoline, termed "gasohol". However, due to limitations of the internal combustion engine, use of alternative fuels has not proven completely successful outside the realm of well-tuned, high-precision, racing engines and the like. This is primarily attributable to the cylinder and piston precision arrangement of the internal combustion engine, especially those used in automobiles. The highly accurate tolerances required in a piston engine prevent using more than one fuel without a general resetting of the engine, including the air/fuel mixture in the carburetor. The carburetors are generally of such precision setting that they must be varied according to the seasons and according to the grade of gasoline used for a given vehicle.
Due to the excessive weight of the internal combustion engine, there has been a move in the automobile industry and elsewhere to use other types of engines and to use piston engines having fewer than eight cylinders, especially six and four cylinder engines. Additionally, a great amount of research and development has been directed toward turbine engines, jet engines and the like. One of the primary considerations for a move away from the eight cylinder piston engine and toward other experimental engines is the overall weight of the engine and, for automobiles, the overall weight of the vehicle.
Gas turbines, jet engines, and experimental engines in the prior art have required a high number of precision formed parts which must necessarily be formed from expensive metals, ceramics, and synthetics. Additionally, there has been a great deal of trouble in providing a turbine or a jet engine for an automobile wherein the fuel is expeditiously directed to the combustors of the engine. These problems have complicated the structure and arrangement of turbine and jet engines for automobiles, thereby limiting access, for maintenance purposes, to the combustors, fuel lines, air intake passageways, and other adjustable components. Additional problems with gas driven engines and the like in automobiles include a large amount of wasted heat (as with piston engines) and noise in excess of environmental limits.
Internal combustion piston engines have conventionally used a fan blade type flywheel construction. This flywheel construction is often either exposed or covered by a housing. However, even with a housing, the flywheel has proven to be a dangerous element of an operating internal combustion engine. The flywheel is necessary to maintain the momentum of the engine but also applies a torque effect to the engine and necessarily the vehicle upon acceleration due to the gyroscopic effect of the rotating flywheel. It is, therefore, desirable to provide a flywheel construction which assists in the stabilization of a vehicle engine.